Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Decided to spend one more night here as there are a few
things we’d like to do. First was a tour
at the Large Animal Research Center close to the University. We saw several muskox and reindeer (caribou)
and learned a lot about them from our tour guide, Amy. The under fur of the musk ox is called qivuit
and besides being an excellent scrabble word, it is the softest wool you will
ever feel – better than cashmere!
Drove over to The Museum of the North, on the UA
campus. Fabulous museum with a mixture
of artifacts, animals, native culture, and current Alaskan art. Here are a few examples.
Picked up a few more groceries and did laundry while trying
to get the blog up-to-date, as we anticipate being out of contact for a while
around Denali.
Decided to drive out Chena Hot Springs road to a trail called
Grand Tors. There is another trail close
to it called Angel Rocks, but per the person at the Information Center earlier,
it is closed due to bear activity. The
drive was pretty boring for the first 30 miles but then got interesting as
we came across several moose. The moose can eat under water, as its
nostrils automatically seal off. Two of
these were in pretty deep water and would totally submerge their heads to munch
away.
We also saw a small forest fire that was still
smoldering. Lots of fire and emergency
folks still around, but it didn’t look like it had spread too far.
Back to River’s Edge, visited with some of our group down by
the river, showered and called it a day.
I was on the computer for quite a while and when I turned it off and went
to bed at 11:45, the sun was just beginning to set. Summer solstice is coming! I heard someone say that Alaskans celebrate
like crazy on Summer solstice, and the next day they are depressed because
winter is coming. They lose about 7 minutes
of daylight a day till darkness is 22
hours or more of the day.
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